Suspended Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez was released without bail on Thursday and ordered to stay away from his girlfriend’s father, whom he is accused of attacking outside a family lounge at Citi Field.
Rodriguez was arrested and charged with third-degree assault after New York’s 6-2 loss to Colorado on Wednesday night. The team put him on the restricted list without pay for two days, costing him more than US$125,000.
The 28-year-old pitcher is accused of grabbing 53-year-old Carlos Pena, hauling him into a nearby tunnel, hitting him in the face and banging his head against the wall. Pena went to a hospital with a scrape and swelling above his right eyebrow.
Rodriguez did not enter a plea. Held overnight at Citi Field, he wore jeans, a white dress shirt and sneakers in a Queens courthouse.
He did not speak, but nodded as the judge spoke to him.
“Ownership and the organization are very disappointed in Francisco’s inappropriate behavior and we take this matter very seriously,” Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said.
Judge Mary O’Donoghue in Queens Criminal Court issued orders of protection for Rodriguez to stay away from his girlfriend — Daian Pena, the mother of their one-year-old twins — and her father.
Assistant district attorney Kristen Kane was denied her request for US$5,000 bail. Rodriguez was released on his own recognizance and is due back in court on Sept. 14.
“Everyone knows who he is, and where he is,” said defense attorney Christopher Booth, adding that they’d just have to check the Mets bullpen.
Rodriguez is not allowed to go home by himself. He must get a police escort to take him there until today so he can gather belongings.
“Mr Rodriguez is obviously distressed. He’s 28 years old and never had anything like this happen to him before. It’s quite a shock for a young man to be put into handcuffs and taken away and charged,” Booth said.
Booth, who called Rodriguez a “family man,” declined to answer reporters’ questions about what happened.
Daian Pena told investigators she was inside the lounge — near the clubhouse and ordinarily a convivial spot where players meet their relatives after games — when Rodriguez appeared and told her to bring her father outside.
She “observed the defendant pin her father against a wall and punch her father multiple times in the face and head,” the criminal complaint said.
Her account was confirmed by the father, who “suffered bruising, swelling, abrasions and redness to the head and pain to his neck,” the complaint said.
The Mets said Rodriguez will not be with the team during his suspension. If the ban is not reversed, Rodriguez would lose US$125,683 of his US$11.5 million salary.
Officials of the Major League Baseball Players Association started discussions with lawyers for Major League Baseball. Suspensions without pay in non-drug matters are unusual in baseball.
Mets manager Jerry Manuel said it would be unfair to judge Rodriguez until all the facts emerge. Still, he was disappointed.
“For me, to get to that level at anything is not something that you encourage,” he said. “You would hope that [with] conversation or whatever, you would be able to solve it. But you still have to weight what spurred such an action. That has to be a part of it, despite that it’s wrong.”
Mets players said uniformly they will back Rodriguez when he returns.
“We support him 100 percent,” Santana said. “I’m just hoping to get him back as soon as possible. He means a lot to this ballclub.”
Rodriguez signed a US$37 million, three-year contract with the Mets after saving a record 62 games with the Angels in 2008. His deal that includes a US$17.5 million team option for 2012 that would become guaranteed if he remains healthy and has 100 games finished this year and next, including 55 next year.
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